CLAYTON — An attorney from San Ramon and a charter school in Clayton have decided that voters have no right to know the employment history of Ron Leone, candidate for the county-wide school superintendent position.

The Clayton Valley Charter High School has repeatedly denied requests from members of the public and this newspaper for the contract of Assistant Superintendent Ron Leone, who is running for Contra Costa County Superintendent of Schools.

The decision runs contrary to clearly established law and the interest of the public in knowing who they are voting for, said David Snyder, executive director of the First Amendment Coalition.

“He is running for an office that has significant authority over a significant budget and a large amount of students. The public is entitled to know what his terms of employment were in his previous job, not because it’s a matter of public record under California law, but it’s a matter of public interest in what he was paid and what the terms were,” Snyder said.

Leone, a Concord City Councilman, has not returned multiple phone calls and emails seeking comment, nor has he released his contract of his own accord.

Details of Leone’s employment are salient, considering he has cited his assistant superintendent experience prominently in his campaign. As of Thursday afternoon, 69,000 voters in Contra Costa County had already cast their ballot in the June 5 election.

Questions of when Leone was hired, what his salary is and what his duties are as an assistant superintendent when there is no superintendent at CVCHS have not been answered up to this point.

On April 23, the Contra Costa County Office of Education issued a letter to CVCHS confirming that it was required to release Leone’s contract.

“It is our understanding and expectation that salary information and contracts of executives and other employees, regardless of how or when their contracts were approved, concern the people’s business and shed light on how the school spends public funds,” wrote Terry Koehne, spokesman for the county office of education.

On May 25, CVCHS’ attorney Paul Minney, of Young, Minney & Corr LLP, a charter school law firm, responded to a public records request from this newspaper for the contracts of three top officials by releasing the contract for David Linzey, executive director for CVCHS, but withholding the contracts for Leone and Linzey’s wife, Eileen Linzey, the chief program officer.

“At this time our legal team has recommended not to release the requested information,” wrote Bob Hampton, interim executive director for CVCHS. “It my intent as new interim director to review past practices regarding this issue and other policies to ensure transparency and best practices are embraced while moving forward.”

Hampton was appointed as interim executive director last week following the abrupt departure of David and Eileen Linzey and Ted Meriam, chief innovation officer for CVCHS, in mid-May.

Linzey has been placed on paid administrative leave and Hampton said his contract will not be renewed when it expires 13 months from now, in June of 2019. Linzey will continue receiving his salary, which was set at $241,426 in 2015 with a 3 percent raise each year. Hampton could not say when Leone was hired, nor what he is paid.

In an email to a parent in January, David Linzey wrote that Leone was hired in December of 2017 “as an administrator over the winter intercession (sic) program.” It’s unclear when Leone was hired as the assistant superintendent of CVCHS, but his candidate profile lists his start date as sometime in 2017.

The governing board has no recorded action approving Leone’s contract as assistant superintendent, which it is legally required to do. However, CVCHS bylaws allowed David Linzey to approve contracts up to $25,000 without board approval. On Jan. 10, 2018, the board increased that amount to $100,000.

On May 21, the board voted to reduce that amount back to $25,000 and also removed David Linzey’s name as a signatory on a school bank account.

In broadly denying requests such as this, the school opens it up to a lawsuit, which is the only mechanism to appeal denials of public records requests, Snyder said.

“It’s the public paying those attorneys’ fees and the public has to pay for an agency’s recalcitrance. The public interest heavily weighs in favor of following the law where it’s clear and defaulting on the side of transparency.”

In an ironic twist, Minney cited a 2003 court case brought on by the Palo Alto Daily News, which — along with this newspaper — is currently part of the Bay Area News Group, for withholding the documents.

“Employment contracts contain personal and private information that is capable of, among other things, causing employees to have his/her privacy invaded and causing individual employees embarrassment if disclosed. These privacy interests outweigh any public interest in disclosure of these contracts,” Paul Minney wrote in his argument against disclosing the contract.

Aaron Davis reports on East Contra Costa County for the East Bay Times. He has worked for papers throughout the Seacoast of New Hampshire, as well as in Queens, New York and in Amarillo, Texas. Send tips to 408-859-5105 or to aarondavis@bayareanewsgroup.com.